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Larger groups can now meet!

Guiding larger groups is now possible on the streets of Cambridge. According to the new rules:

– Gatherings of up to 30 are allowed outdoors since 17th May 2021. Hence, our guided tours in Cambridge are returning to the usual group size of maximum 20 people.

– Indoor guiding (if and when it becomes possible) will still be in goups of maximum 6 people, plus the guide.

– Social distancing is still important, but it will now be people’s *personal responsibility*, i.e. it will be up to individuals to decide how far they wish to distance themselves from each other. (As a guide, I will need to make sure there is enough room for everyone to be comfortably positioned on the narrow streets of Cambridge!)

– Tracking and tracing will be carried out as before.

Guiding larger groups is now allowed outdoors

Round churches around the world

Our Round Church in Cambridge is not alone – she has sisters around the world. Guess where these two are!

Three Round Churches

Peep at the answer

The Temple Church, Temple, London EC4Y 7BB

Santo Sepolcro, Brindisi, Italy

The Church of the Holy Sepulchre (The Round Church), Cambridge, CB2 1UB.

We are back on the streets!

From the beginning of this week (29.03.2021), we can meet in groups of six outdoors, or larger groups as long as they are no more than two households. Hence, Tangential Cambridge is resuming its tours, which will comply with COVID-19 regulations. Watch this space!

Ladybirds
A small group of “punters” outdoors

Pre-Christmas Tour – December 2020

On Christmas eve, we ventured out into the freezing streets of Cambridge for a socially distanced walk, just before the new lockdown. It was invigoratingly crisp and merry; we talked about mistletoe and fir trees, camels and festive food, myths, fables and customs, and admired some of the homemade pre-Christmas decorations in Cambridge, such as St. John the Evangelist in a Father Christmas hat on the gate of the eponymous sixteenth-century college.

Excellent news from King’s College Chapel

Excellent news from King’s College Chapel: guided tours are now being offered from Tuesday to Friday this week only (half-term) at the following times: 10:00 – 10.45am, 11:00 – 11.45am, 1:00 – 1.45pm, and 2:00 – 2.45pm. After this, public tours of the Chapel will be offered every Saturday from this coming weekend (31st October) until the end of term. To book: https://www.kings.cam.ac.uk/visit/your-visit

Kings Chapel 3 062019

Haunted Cambridge tours

The “Haunted Cambridge” ghost tours by Cambridge tourist guides continue every Friday and Saturday night at 6:30pm, from the front of Great St Mary’s Church (opposite the Senate House). Booking is strongly recommended, as the groups need to be small to observe social distancing. In anticipation of Halloween, there will be two tours every night at the end of October – beginning of November. Visit https://Haunted-Cambridge.uk (click on Tours, to book a tour).

HauntedCambridge 1

Quiet morning in Cambridge

A beautiful, quiet morning in Cambridge yesterday, with ripe, autumnal colours of the veg stalls in the market, art school students cosily settled by Great St. Mary’s sketching crisp townscapes, and a few locals sailing past casually on their bikes. No tourists – just the freshness and immediacy of a weekday morning…

What the eye can’t see

What the eye can’t see, a virtual tour of Cambridge can reveal! I show my original photos of the sights that are not easily accessible or are currently closed to the public, so that you can catch a glimpse of  an inner court of a college, a staircase leading to students’ rooms, a historic lecture theatre, a scientific instrument from an exhibition that was used for a ground-breaking discovery, a graduation ceremony in June, and even the roof of King’s College Chapel.

Hidden Places v2Left: staircase leading to students’ accommodation in an early 16th century college. Top right: on the roof of King’s College Chapel. Bottom right: Maxwell’s original lecture theatre in the Old Cavendish Laboratory on Free School Lane.

Why Tangential?

Why Tangential Cambridge? Well, for many reasons! First of all, we’ll roam and meander on our tours, exploring links and allusions and often going off at tangents, which is much more fun than sticking to a single track. Secondly, it’s a reference to an iconic Cambridge site (see the picture – courtesy of Wikipedia). Also, it’s a mathematical concept close to my heart. And, finally, it somewhat resembles my own name, Tanya!

Maths Bridge Coloured 2
This is the so-called Mathematical Bridge. The straight, coloured lines together describe an arc, and each of them is a tangent to it! That way the stress is distributed lengthwise rather than perpendicular to the beams which makes the construction much more robust.